The presentation of my world idea went very smoothly. In fact, almost too smoothly for my liking – as the panelists were very impressed with my world idea and couldn’t offer many suggestions as to “next steps” for my final product.

While I initially was frustrated by this (as I would rather have a lot of places to begin repairing than not have many places at all) –  but there are some positives that can be taken from this. Firstly, the basics of the world are without glaring flaws.  Secondly, my world is clear enough that it was concisely explained within the three minutes. Finally, there are no revisions that need be made to my premise, and I can continue on building upon world rather than spend time amending issues with it.

That being said – there were some interesting notes of similarity to previous established worlds – one that particularly interested me was the likeness to Jumanji. In the film, Robin Williams plays Alan Parrish – a man who spends 26 years trapped within a board game. While this comparison is slightly different to my planned world (as Alan unwillingly enters the board game; while the Lore Enforcers willingly enter the texts), it is still quite a striking similarity given the ability to travel into an otherwise “fictional” world.

One thing that I remember in great detail from watching the film as a child was Alan’s initial inability to reacquaint himself with the norms of the world outside the Jumanji wild – such as the fact a great deal of time had passed; but also his obsession with soft toilet paper. The humour in these scenes of the movie have given me an idea to perhaps explore a character within one of the texts coming across the “golden door” leading out of the textual world, and as part of a “double episode” of the season, the Lore Enforcers need to then track down the character that has now escaped and is in the “overworld”.

However, this brings me to back to something that I previously noted needed consideration for part of the internal logic of my world – how does the passage of time work within the world of Lore Enforcement?

On the one hand, I could go with the Jumanji logic — the passage of time in the overworld is the equivalent to the passage of time in the text which the Lore Enforcers enter. However, this would restrict my ability to mine each text for its comedic potential – I would have to focus on one particular scene or section of each text, rather than play around with some things that may happen in different parts of the text.

This leads me to consider going with non-Jumanji logic, which I had been considering originally. Put simply, the passage of time in the overworld is much slower than the passage of time in the text which the Lore Enforcers enter. This passage of time may potentially be variable – but I need to work out exactly how so. My thought is to have it as though the time passes in the real world at the same rate as one would read the events of a text. For example, the Capulet party in Romeo and Juliet may be read within 5-10 minutes by a reader; even though the actual party took place over an entire evening in the text world. So that one night in the textual world could equate to 5-10 minutes in the overworld. Meanwhile, a Where’s Wally puzzle may take 10 minutes to solve, so ten minutes of real-world time would equate perhaps a full day in a Where’s Wally world. The other option is to make it fixed, so 1 hour in over world time may equal 12 hours of textual world time – depending on the text. In that example, a full work day would equate to approximately four days in the textual world.

A third approach would be to simply suspend disbelief. As it would be a comedy series, it’s not exactly necessary to have every detail ironed out and laid out for the viewer. However, I feel that this approach is somewhat of a cop out.

I think ultimately I will follow the “non-Jumanji” approach to time comparison. Again, though – I need to work out if the time proportions are fixed or variable; and at this stage I am leaning towards a hybrid – with time being fixed; but the time comparison varying from text to text (for example, 8 hours may be four Romeo and Juliet days, while 8 hours may also be 8 Where’s Wally hours). Exactly how the Lore Enforcers will know how much time they have will probably be through the passing of time on wristwatches; but it could alternatively be communicated by the printing press before they enter. This is a decision I need to dwell further on before I begin explaining the world logic through exposition in my final “product”.

 

814 words.